Brain and Behavior

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Describing some aspect of my experiences with the
Brain and Behavior Institute '08

One thing that stood out for me in the institute was the way the professor and his co presenters made us realize that each and everyone of us is unique in our own way and that when we let everyone bring his own individuality into what we are doing the products of our endeavor will be unique. This will lead to new ideas being generated in the world of science.

The institute brought out the creative ability that had hitherto been lying more or less fallow in me enabling me to come up with tangible contributions to discussions or even ideas that were of great benefit to my group in general and the whole body of participants in general.

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The Brain and Behavior Institute actually helped me to put myself in the position of my students and experience how it feels to be a student in a classroom with the Inquiry mode of learning. Most of the learning experiences we had were done through questioning and one form of hands-on activity or the other. On several occasions when the topic for the week or even the day was being introduced using the lecture mode, I feel very impatient waiting for the time we are going to be doing related activities on the subject. This is the situation with our students. They can’t wait to do something hands-on (Kinesthetic learners) or watch a video/teacher demonstration (visual learners) in order to enhance their learning.

This institute’s main goal of familiarizing K-12 teachers about neurological and behavioral situations to allow them to make useful educational implications was without a doubt, a complete success. But it is important to point out that a lot of participating teachers felt once they entered the institute is an uneven balance between the science they were learning and the educational importance they were receiving; many participants thought that there was not enough focus on what everything they have discussed on the Brain suggests for education. As the teacher conducting this institute, Grobstein, it is important that you not only encourage the new and different pedagogical tools

Coming into this institute, I had the impression that our weekly meetings were for discussing different approaches to education and how we can present this during the 2-week workshop. However, I was surprised to find that the workshop resembled very much like my 2nd semester course in Neurobiology and Behavior with Paul. I was very curious about how this lecture would relate to education since I had previously approached the course as solely a neurobiology class. I was astonished how approaching science as a “sum of observations” and a continuous loop related to education as well. At the same time I was wondering why I had not seen the connection earlier.

What follows is the beginning of an outline for a class on understanding and dealing with stress for a course I and others teach for 10th graders. Teacher tips are listed in red, throughout the document.

We are admonished as teachers in the 21st century to have our students "utilize technology" in their learning. Normally, this means to have the students learn by doing work using computers and the Internet. Sometimes this seems to complicate the learning process unnecessarily by bringing into the process an additional variable. I'm feeling more and more, tho, that our kids are so much more comfortable online than they are offline. As a result, they may be easier to reach if they are engaged online during the learning process. That's one reason I like Webassign. It is non-threatening and (to a degree) non-judgemental (at least emotionally).